L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #62

L.E.G.I.O.N. '94 #62 (December 1993)
title: "Big Babies!"
writer: Tom Peter
penciler: Stephen Jones & Tom Tenney (18-24)
inker: Dennis Kramer
colors: Gene D'Angelo
letters: Gasper Saladino
editor: Dan Raspier
cover: Barry Kitson

Recap: Bek invited representatives from numerous worlds to come to a celebration on the planet Rigon to discuss how the L.E.G.I.O.N. might meet their security needs. Dox was furious because he saw it as creating a powder keg, but Bek was not around to hear his complaints because he stowed aboard Captain Comet and Marij'n's ship as they headed for a romantic getaway. 

The planet Motus sent their representative Gigantus, who appeared to be a huge, fierce warrior on screen, but turned out to be smaller than almost every member of L.E.G.I.O.N.  Nevertheless, he managed to create a huge disturbance by picking fights, including against Telepath. The festivities were also crashed by the insurgent General Zaaaq, who had a vendetta against his rival, Affr Tyunng. The team struggled in battle, but were saved when Lobo arrived to take on Zaaaq and his forces. After their victory, several worlds were interested in signing up with the L.E.G.I.O.N., and the representatives of Motus even turned over their champion Gigantus to be a new L.E.G.I.O.N. recruit as a good will gesture. 

Stealth is preparing her child for his regular visit with his father, although she is still hesitant about their arrangement. Despite coming to a mutual understanding, she remains very suspicious of his motives.

The new recruits review footage of their newest member, Gigantus. He appears quite fearsome and they debate whether he will be a helpful ally or just another oversized ego. But when they finally meet him, they are less than impressed.

After introducing Gigantus to his new teammates, Dox announces that Borb will be moving up in the ranks to join the core team. Davroth is bitter to see only one of them moving up, and tries to provoke his teammates, but his efforts fall short when Dox asks him to be the one to change his son's diaper.

Elsewhere, Lobo is having a few drinks when he learns that Superman has defeated the powerful warlord Mongul.  Having believed Superman to be dead, Lobo welcomes the opportunity to prove himself "the main man" and leaves to find Supes.

Lobo is searching for Bek and discovers that he snuck aboard and left on Comet's ship. He orders Phase to send Lobo, but Phase resists because she fears Lobo will just murder him. She says she will find another way and tells Dox to get a grip. After she departs, we once again hear from Dox's surprisingly articulate baby son.

Phase orders Lady Quark to track down Bek and warns her to handle things gently as he, Comet, and Marij'n are probably on edge. 

On Ith'kaa, Comet is taking delight in observing the native life but is confused that Marij'n seems irritated with him. Comet has been trying to make the best of Bek's presence and even gone so far as to teach him to fish, but Marij'n does not react at all like he expected.

On Cairn, a L.E.G.I.O.N. trooper is following Stealth on Dox's orders but it is unclear why. He loses track of her but finds the bag she was carrying left behind. He realizes too late that he has been discovered and fallen into a trap.

Dox is running tests on his son to get a greater understanding of how he gained his unusual intelligence. The child does not even realize how unique he is and questions his father to learn more about his origin. Unbeknownst to Dox, he is being observed by Stealth, who learned that the trooper had been sent by Dox to make sure she stayed away.

Lady Quark is on her way to Ith'kaa when she comes under attack by a powerful duplicate of herself. Caught off guard, she falls in battle before she (or we) can learn anything about her attacker. 

Stealth makes herself known to Dox and strikes him out of anger over his experiments on their child. Dox insists he did not violate their agreement and was only running harmless tests. After their argument continues to escalate, their son finally speaks up and asks them to stop fighting because it is making him anxious. Stealth is shocked to hear her son speaking so clearly and assumes it is the result of Dox's experiments.

Ah, its nice to see things get back on track after my disappointment with last issue. This one is much closer with what I have come to expect (and love) about the L.E.G.I.O.N. Although he is juggling several storylines, Peyer does a great job of balancing them and building suspense throughout the issue. I am not that fond of Gigantus so far, but thats a very minor part of the issue and I did enjoy seeing Borb graduate to the core team. I am a bit surprised that he has been the only one so far but perhaps we will see some explanation on that in coming issues.

I did not even mind Lobo's appearance, even though he has been grating on me more and more of late, because it is obviously leading towards an appearance by Superman. I will always welcome that! A lot went on in this issue, from the Superman tease, to the Lady Quark development, to Stealth discovering her son's unusual intelligence, to Gigantus joining the team, to Borb being promoting, and Marij'n turning her attention from Comet back to Bek. But it all moved very smoothly and was easy to follow. Even though a huge chunk of this issue was devoted to forshadowing, it was well done and left me looking forward to see how things play out. I cannot recall what happens to Comet and Marij'n but I will be a bit sad if their relationship falls apart so quickly because I was rooting for them for so long. And the thought of her going back to Bek...well, whether she stays with Comet or not, I would really be disappointed if that happened.

One aspect of this title I have not discussed in a while is the art. That's because I was not a big fan of Arnie Jorgensen's work on the last few issues. Its not that I felt it was bad or took away from the story, but it also did not really grab me and I really missed Barry Kitson's art. While I would not characterize the art on this installment as outstanding, I did find the two pencillers here to be a marked improvement over the last few issues. Jorgensen returns next issue so I am curious to see if his style will either evolve or grow on me as we approach the end of this series.

So for the next installment, I am not going to be covering a L.E.G.I.O.N. issue. Instead, I am going to be covering two Superman comics (Action Comics #695 & Man of Steel #30), which feature an appearance by Lobo. You can probably guess why of course. And then we will get back to this title the following week and that issue will feature a guest appearance by...yes, you guessed it, the Man of Steel. So I hope you return next week for the start of this new crossover!